Question of the Week: 88 - 12/8/2002Are We Alone in The Universe?Is this Earth the only planet inhabited with intelligent life? (Yeah. I wonder about that "intelligent" part sometimes, too!) Is Life a fluke? Are we unique? If there are other life forms out there, do you think that we shall ever meet them? How far into the future might that happen? Will they find us or will we find them first?

Do you think that the discovery of inhabitants on other planets would change our world view? How would the existence of aliens affect the religions of this world? Do you think such a concept as "religion" might also be found on other worlds?

Have we already been visited by beings from other planets? If an alien did come calling, what might you show him/her/it about life on planet Earth? Would you like to travel to another planet?

Let's see, our galaxy is how many light-years across? And it's just one of how many galaxies? and each galaxy how many stars, of which how many probably have planets of which what percentage are likely to be "earth-like"?

And all that not quite infinite universe is there for no reasons whatsoever except for you and I to screw up our love-lives, get drunk on Saturday night, and spend three years trying to get Social Security Disability approved!!

I believe there is other life in the universe, and, although I haven't experienced it, I think some people may have. I would love to visit another planet. I would also love to visit a spaceship. I think it would be a fabulous experience.

There is no doubt about other life existing in the universe. There are billions of galaxies in the universe, with trillions of stars in each one of the galaxies. And every one of those stars have planets orbiting around them. The chances that a planet is in the "Safe Zone," the distance from the sun that allows for liquid water to exist, is huge! We just have to find the planets that are in that safe zone. As for aliens visiting us, well that is up for debate. I, for one, believe that they have visited us, and the government *might* (as in there is a possiblity, but there is an equal chance that I could be wrong) be covering it up. The reason for that cover-up is something that I can't imagine. If there is a cover-up, then it is for national security. I don't know about you, but if I found out that aliens had visited us I know I wouldn't panic. In fact, I don't think that it would affect my lifestyle much, if any. I would think that it would be cool, but I would go around looting because aliens had visited Earth.

There is a lot of proof that aliens have come to Earth, and it is not just people taking pictures of UFOs either. There are records from ancient civilizations that describe alien encounters. There is even a classical painting that shows something like a UFO. The artist (I forgot his name) even made the point of painting people pointing to it in the backround. All this evidence tells me that aliens have visited Earth.

Here are some of my beliefs in storyteller format about us as the extraterrestrials...

Lemurians Were Journeyers From The Stars

The Lemurians were originally from an advanced humanoid planet that orbited a star in the area now known as the Ring Nebula which is located in the northern constellation of Lyra. There were three distinct tribal groupings of people on the planet all of whom had lifespans of many thousands of years. One of the tribes was fond of the martial arts, competitive sports, mental gymnastics, weaponry, tests of strength, puzzles, power positions, hierarchies, technical gadgetry, and definitive rules of engagement. They cultivated their minds and bodies but let their hearts and inner child go fallow. Another tribe was interested in nature. They cultivated the land, flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables. They talked to the trees and communicated with the animals. Competition did not interest them. They danced under the stars. They sang songs and played music around campfires. The third tribe integrated both their masculine and feminine polarities. They developed their shamanic and storytelling abilities for empowerment because they cherished peace above all else. This is a barebones synthesis of what was a very complex and advanced society with three very distinctive social groupings. For simplicity, lets call the planet Lyra and the three tribal groupings the Achievers, the Singers, and the Shamans.

Lyra had developed spaceships suitable for interstellar travel. The Singers and the Shamans were tired of the way the Achievers ran things and unbeknownst to them joined together to form a taskforce to find a new home world for themselves. They began constructing starships which the Shamans surrounded with invisibility zones. They also sent out planetary scouts. The scouts returned with good news. There was a Solar System with a similar Star and three habitable planets. One of them was Earth. They called it Dannu, a name for the divine mother, since it was an Animal Planet where many different types of animals species were evolving. The other two planets were beautiful goddess planets perfect for human habitation with oceans, mountains, scared forests, waterfalls, and lots of land suitable for gardening and farming.

Shortly after the scouts returned they boarded the starships and left without saying goodbye. The Shamans left the Achievers an electronic message which they opened several days after the Singers and Shamans were gone. Basically it stated they were leaving because of irreconcilable differences, that they had found new Home Worlds and did not want to have any further contact with Lyra, and to have an opulently achievement orientated life without them. The Achievers who had relied on the Singers and Shamans for most of their food, clothing, medicinal herbs, beer, wine, etc. were not very pleased with their change of fortunes. It was a major setback for Lyra.

They missed the Singers and the Shamans and did not really have the introspection and sensitivity to fully comprehend what motivated them to runaway from their Home World. Over time, however, the Achievers adapted their culture so that all their material needs were easily met. Then, gradually as the centuries passed more and more of the people showed an interest in spiritual pursuits, but, their main focus was still always substantive, quantifiable accomplishments. The Achievers did not begrudge the Singers and Shamans their quest for new spirit songs, peace, and serenity, wishing them happiness and prosperity.

A lot of the Lyran animal species also went on the starships with the Singers and the Shamans. The Dolphins have communicated that they originated on Lyra. About half of them remained on Lyra, while, the other half went with the Shamans and Singers. The dolphins intent had always been to help humans balance their watery, sensitive, feeling, empathetic side with its logical and scientific counterpart. They were the Animal Totem for Lyra and being adventurous the dolphins wanted to explore the relatively new goddess planets in our Solar System. The dolphins said that they helped maintain planetary balance with their sonics.

When the Lyrans arrived in our Solar System, the Shamans decided to settle on the planet that is now known as Mars which they called Brighid, while, the Singers settled on the planet whose remnants form the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, which they called Epona. The animal totem for the planet Brighid was the Cow (Bull) and the animal totem for the planet Epona was the Horse. Both planets had extensive oceans, so a portion of the dolphins moved into the seas of both Brighid and Epona. Once the Shamans perfected their sacred portal technology, they erected travel gates made from large stones between the two planets, as well as, the Earth. The animal totem for the Earth, which was a world were animal species have the opportunity to evolve, was the Elephant. A lot of the dolphins on Brighid and Epona wanted to experience life on an Animal Planet. So with the blessings of the Shamans and the Singers, they moved into the oceans of the Earth.

Things went well for the Shamans and the Singers for many thousands of years. Then, one day they were discovered by a group of domineering men from a predominately masculine world where everyone was so ruthlessly competitive that they made their Home World uninhabitable fighting their war games. Not to be deterred, they built themselves a metallic movable planet and set out in search of new worlds to play their control games on. Lets call them the Marauders. They were not even from this galaxy, but, webs of confusions, delusions, illusions, and lies formed the bulwark of their agenda so they always went by pseudonyms, usually using the names of peoples or planets they had recently conquered, exploited, or destroyed. Since they had just wrecked havoc around the star Sirius, they told the Singers on Epona that they were the Nibiruians, which they most definitely were not.

Anyway to make a very long story more condensed, the Shamans and the Singers who had left Lyra because they found competition discordant gave them a chilly reception. When the Marauders tried to abduct their wives and daughters, they fought back. A series of battles ensued. Since the Marauders found the women of Epona very fair indeed they concentrated much of their vitriol and venom there.

The Shaman Seers on Brighid had visions of the destruction of their planet as well as Epona by a concentrated beam of energy from the planetoid, battle station of the Marauders. The Shamans had developed defensive spiritual technologies that the Singers were not yet evolved enough to use. The Shamans erected a protective energy shield around Brighid and warned the Singers about the future actions of the Marauders against them and Epona.

The Brighids began an immediate evacuation of their populace and animals to Earth to a tropical continent which they called Lamasur and which later became know as Lemuria. They used the sacred portals which were undetectable to the Marauders. The Shamans knew that the Marauders were not interested in the Earth since it was an animal planet with no human inhabitants. The Shamans immediately erected an invisibility shield around Lemuria. The Singers being animal lovers, sent their horses and other animals out first through the sacred portals. Then tragedy struck, only a few hundred of the Singers had passed through the interplanetary portal gates when the Marauders in a moment of peaked fury blew up Epona.

Some of the Shamans remained on Brighid and continued to fight the Marauders inflicting crippling injuries on their battle station. At that point, the remaining Shamans decided to retreat to Lemuria and the planetary goddess Brighid quickly withdrew her energy so that the magnetics dropped to zero and the ecology changed rapidly, making the planet uninhabitable. This was done mainly to deter the Marauders from also blowing up Brighid. Not much time had gone by before the Marauders turned their battle station around and hobbled out of the Solar System, totally unaware that all of the Shamans and some of the Singers had safely relocated to Lemuria, (Lamasur).

Around this time the Achievers from Lyra were inspired to go on a quest to find out what had become of the Shamans and Singers who were now known to them as the Lyran Lost Tribes. On the subtler levels the Achievers were probably tuning into the tragedy that has recently occurred but on the more grosser level their star was undergoing the process of becoming a white dwarf so relocating to a new Home World seemed like a stellar idea to them. Excited scouts returned with their equivalent of videos (taken before the arrival of the Marauders) of the Shamans on Brighid and the Singers on Epona. The Achievers decided to grace them with a surprise visit and see if they could reconcile their differences with them since they were all kin afterall. So with a new song in their hearts, the Achievers set sail on the stellar seas in their starships, full of high hopes for a bright future for everyone.

Meanwhile the psychopomps among the Shamans rounded up the traumatized etheric bodies of the Singers and shepherded them to the fourth dimension around Lemuria. Since the Lyrans lived for many millenium and rarely had children, finding human bodies for the millions of disembodied Singers was a perplexing problem. When the Achievers arrived looking for the Shamans and Singers they were devastated to find only war torn remnants of their civilization on Brighid and the asteroid belt where the fair planet Epona had been. The Shamans were aware of their presence and with their remote viewing saw their angst. Moved by the genuine grief of the Achievers, they revealed their whereabouts to them.

It was both a joyful and tearful reunion. The Achievers used their advanced knowledge of genetics to combine the DNA from the surviving Singers with that of some of the animal species on the planet, with the full consent of both, to create human biochemical shells for the former Eponans to inhabit. Although the new bodies for the Singers had the potential to reach the same evolutionary heights as their former Lyran bodies, many millenium would pass before a handful of them were able to cross the spiritual thresholds again. The Shamans continued to support, teach, and protect them as they underwent the process of regenerative rehabilitation.

After several thousands of years had passed, the Achievers turned increasingly towards scientific and spiritual technology. Communications between them and the Shamans and the Singers had improved significantly over the millenium. So after thoroughly assessing, processing, and negotiating their mutual desire for independent growth along similar but separate pathways, the Achievers decided to voluntarily relocate to other areas of the globe. Their civilization became known as Atlantis, while that of the Shamans became known as Lemuria. The Singers remained under the guidance and tutelage of the Shamans.

Although the Shamans still maintained the invisibility shield around Lemuria as a protective measure, the Atlantean Achievers saw no need for such defenses, trusting in their advanced technological weaponry to see them through any crisis. Many centuries passed before the Achievers came up on the radar screen of the Marauders as they passed by the Sun. Coming in to investigate, the Marauders soon engaged the Achievers in a protracted battle. Unable to defeat the combined spiritual technologies of the Shamans and the Achievers, the Marauders withdrew to a position close to the asteroid belt where they brooded for some time.

Shortly after the Marauders pulled out, the Shaman Seers foresaw the sequence of events that would lead to the destruction of both Atlantis and Lemuria. They shared their visions with the Achievers and together they devised a survival plan for the collective consciousnesses of the Lyran tribes. From their prior explorations of this sector of the galaxy, they knew that there was a planet suitable for the Achievers in the constellation of Orion and a planet suitable for the Shamans in the Pleiades.

The Achievers were now fifth dimensional beings, although most of them were only capable of vibrating at the lower frequency levels of that dimensional band. The Shamans were now sixth dimensional beings. Since the Achievers and the Shamans both wanted to continue their separate cultural pathways, the Achievers chose Orion where there was a fifth dimensional planet available for them to relocate to; and, the Shamans chose the Pleiades where their new Home Planet, which vibrated at the sixth dimension frequencies, would be undetectable to the technology of the Marauders.

That left the Singers who for the most part could still only exist in the third dimension. A few of them were able to vibrate at the higher vibrational levels of the fourth dimension, but, none of them were capable of surviving in either the new fifth dimensional Orion Home World of the Achievers or the new sixth dimensional Pleiadian Home World of the Shamans. The Singers Lyran tribe would have to remain behind. Using the technology of the Achievers, the Lyran tribes carved out vast caverns in mountains in various locations around the planet that the Shaman Seers knew would safely survive the cataclysms and built temporary living quarters for them.

Using the sacred portals of the Shamans they moved the Singers and a substantial representative group from each of the animal species. They also supplied the Singers with the seeds and seedlings of every type of flower, fruit, grain, vegetable, bush, and tree. Although their teachings were based on an oral tradition, the Shamans still had written archives and sacred texts that contained much of their knowledge and wisdom. Libraries were constructed deep within each of the caverns to store copies of them. The Singers were also equipped with reed boats, maps, time keeping, and other navigational tools that would tell them when it was safe to emerge from the caverns and enable them to travel safely to the sites where they would built their new cities.

Neither the Achievers nor the Shamans thought it was prudent to leave the Singers with any of the advanced technological devices or the knowledge of how to construct them, fearing that it would once again attract the Marauders to the planet at a time when the Singers were still ill equipped to defend themselves from them. Finally, after many heart wrenching goodbyes and promises to return for visits periodically, both the Achievers and Shamans left the planet and solar system undetected, using a system of time warp vortexes they had constructed for just such a contingency.

About a year after the Achievers and Shamans had left, the Marauders had figured out how they were going to wreck vengeance upon the planet. Rather than blow it up as they had Epona, they decided to strike Atlantis and Lemuria (they had tracked communications between the Lyran tribes) with large asteroids from the planetary remains of Epona, the former Home World of the Singers. Basically they captured a bunch of the asteroids and hurled the two largest ones, like javelin megabombs, at each of the continents. The collision of the asteroids with the spirit-techno shields surrounding Atlantis and Lemuria caused the landmasses to completely disintegrate and disappear, similar to someone on Star Trek hitting someone with a laser gun set to kill.

The smaller asteroids were used to stir up the ocean floor, to activate the volcanoes, and to disturb the planetary crust. It was quite a show on the view screens of the Marauders. Enormously pleased with themselves, they saw that Atlantis and Lemuria had been destroyed and then lingered awhile to watch the volcanoes erupt and the tidal waves sweep across the ocean. Finally when they were convinced that no signs of technology remained anywhere on the Earth, they left the solar system in search of new conquests.

So ended the Golden Ages of Atlantis and Lemuria. On the day the Shaman Seers had chosen for them, the Singers left their caverns, moved their ships on wheels to the nearest deep waterway and set sail to the four corners of the planet. Most of them settled along areas of the coastline they knew were stabilized and a whole new planetary epoch began.

I used to debate this question with my Buddhist father. There is life in the universes or multi-verses. To think that we are alone (or "supreme") is an assumption. Can we be so sure? Can we so confident that we are the only intelligent races/cultures in the Milky Way?

Perhaps, they are already sending out their pathfinders, their versions of astronauts and scientists. Who knows? ;)

The discovery of aliens on other planets may or may not affect our religions. And there might be 'religion' or belief systems more diverse (or very similar to ourselves). That's the reason why speculative fiction or science-fiction is around - we wonder and it's good to wonder.

Likewise, there are people who are 'Starborn' or believe that they are reincarnated beings from other worlds/planets.

Blessed Be,..........I think that the alien question has always been a concern for us, and while that is a good question, there are others. The age old "Cavern of Socrates" shows up yet again as we percieve the world as it is to us. The same goes for the universe, I have no doubt at all that there are other life forms out there, some that would destroy us, and some that love us. I also think that unless the aliens are intent on the whole world knowing that they landed, we will never know they exist. The various governments would never allow us "normal" people to assosciate with them, as we could "...inadvertenly start an interstellar war..." {quoted from Independence Day}. I still think that shows like Capricorn One, Men In Black I & II, X-Files, and others have the right ideas. They are out there, the governments would never allow us to talk with them, and even if they did, would we believe their answers.

..........I also remember a story about a Denver cop who shot and killed one of our few legal aliens a few years back, and wonder if that would not happen should ET & friends ever show up.

I'm with Carl Sagan who felt that if there were no other life out there in the vast stellar sea it would, indeed, be a terrible waste of good space! My main caution in talking about this topic is that we cannot simply define life by our terms when we think in terms of the Universe. Every day science discovers another life form living in areas previously thought impossible, which tells me there's a lot more to "life" than we currently understand or define.

As to the character of such life - some would be intelligent, some plant matter, etc. Those with intelligence may or may not have allready traveled the stars (but if they came this way I suspect they decided it a "no fly zone" because of some of our backward ways LOL). Alternatively perhaps they chose to seed our society periodically with ideas and innovations (which would certainly go far to explain the huge leaps in human awareness at times like the renaissance).

Would it change our religious views ?? I doubt neopagans would be shaken because we already embrace diversity. However, fundamentalists would have to examine their ideas about God in a whole new way (after all, the Bible says nothing about Jesus visiting other worlds!!) NO matter when it happens, I believe that our first encounter with any alien life form will change our sense of reality forever (and hopefully for the better). Humans would have to take the step toward a cosmic mindset that no longer has the comfort or ego boost of saying "we are alone"

No, I don't think we are alone in the universe. I think that if we live on this planet, why couldn't an alien race have been created on another? I think we are unique in one way or another, just like one individual is different from another. I belive that we will meet them someday, and if is them that make first contact, then it will be in the next hundred years or so, but if it us that make first contact then it will be along way off. I think the world would change dramaticaly, views would change. I find it hard to belive that alien culture couldn't have had religion, even if they do not have it now. I think some religions would change, others would disapear. It all depends on how....I want to say felixible, but that just sounds bad. How non strict the faith is. -BB

My personal belief is that we are not alone and that we have been visited. It makes sense to me that we are not alone because our own existence is a fluke of the statistical chances of our evolution even given the time life is suspected to have been here. Given this, there must be either some driving principle or force (refered to by many different people differently) making sure we go in the right direction. If this essence is making sure that we do alright, why not all the rest of the vastness of space? The reason that I think that we've been visited is that we've come so far in 300 years and some cultures must have been developed 300,000 years ago. If they were to increase their technology like ours and only improve faster and faster, they would be able to do things we have no concept of technologically. In my mind that means recognizing the power of the mind (both will and creative power). Essentially mastering magick to the point that none have seen or known. Probably kind of hard to find unless they want you too, eh? This is all just my opinion and may only make sense in my eyes, but it looks good from here.

I do believe that there is life out there on other planets. I think that there are many, many different stages of life spanning the entire universe. Sometimes I think that maybe good old Earth is kind of like how Douglous Adams talked about it, a back water that is so far away from all the others... but I bet there are a lot of other backwaters, too. As for aliens coming to visit, I don't think it has happened yet. I had a science teacher who explained it in a way that made sense. Here we are, an average yellow sun in an average galaxy. No one realizes we're here, so why would they come all the way out here unless it was an acciedent? There are so many more interesting things in the universe to see. Until our signals reach out far enough, then we're pretty much just a boaring vacation spot. Then again, you never know when an accendent is going to happen, right?

There is about 10 billion stars in our own solar system and about 5 billion known galaxies containing billions of stars. Weve found over 100 planets orbiting other stars, even thought these planets a 1-4 time the size of jupiter, but from that distane thats about all we can detect, is all these possibilites there has to be other forms of life out there

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